World Diabetes Day
Sir,
The World Diabetes
Day was observed on 14th November. A number of
Seminars etc. were organised which shows
increasing awareness of the disease among the
public. According to the World Health
Organisation (WHO) report, India is likely to
have 57 million diabetics by 2025. And this may
be just the tip of the iceberg: screenings
indicate that the unknown-to-known diabetes ratio
is about 1:1 in urban areas. It could be as high
as 3:1 in the rural population.
Why does diabetes
get top billing in India? Doctors believe that
Indians may be genetically more susceptible to
it. And it strikes Indians at a much younger age
than it does elsewhere. While the peak age for a
person getting diabetes in the US is between 60
and 70, it’s 40-50 years in India. In other
words, the exponential increase in disease has
changed Diabetes from an individual problem to an
alarming public health worry !
Hence, a lot more
needs to be done. For example, Ministry of Social
Welfare should take note of the fact that besides
hereditary factors, social and economic
conditions also aggravate risk of diabetes. Jobs
involving strenuous/long sitting hours,
adulteration in food-stuff, pollution,
malnutrition in childhood, etc. do weaken the
digestive system and may cause too much or
insufficient secretion of insulin which results
in Diabetes in the long run. But ultimately
it’s the individual who suffers - be
it promotion/costly treatment or non-rebate of
the same in Income-Tax! But is it justified ?
This question must disturb one and all. NGOs and
Social Service Organisations have a special
responsibility in this regard.
The Supreme Court
or HRD Ministry may consider issuing specific
guidelines that Diabetic employees, officers are
not discriminated in the matter of next
promotions. Some organisations may not treat
Diabetic employees as "assets" simple
because they feel hungry if Conference goes too
long (and hence Lunch Hours are skipped) or
can’t sit too late in the evening or tour
extensively because of fatigue, insulin-injection
problem, other complications. How can their
standards of performance be same as those of
normal, healthy people? Their placement, postings
should also be in tune with individual
complication, treatments so that, as per HRD
philosophy, they too have a sense of
participation, pride and job satisfaction. "Empathy"
is also needed as any body at any time can be
affected by diabetes.
What to speak of
metropolitans, even in other cities most of the
clinical laboratories, diabetologists are off on
Sundays. This is a great inconvenience to
office-goers. As different markets have now
different weekly offs, so should be the case with
labs/doctors so that there is no difficulty in
test, consultations etc.
Yours etc...
Mohan Bhatnagar
1365, Sector - XII,
R. K. Puram,
New Delhi - 110022
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